Alton Macy’s closing by year’s end

Alex B. Heeb, aheeb@civitasmedia.com

Published
4:07 pm CST, Wednesday, January 4, 2017

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Alton Macy’s closing by year’s end

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ALTON — Macy’s at Alton Square will close by the end of this year, Macy’s Inc. announced Wednesday in a corporate news release stating the company’s intentions to streamline and intensify cost efficiency efforts.

The store, which opened its Alton location in October 1978 as a Famous-Barr, is 180,000 square feet and employs approximately 54 people.

Macy’s Inc. stated the company is taking a series of actions to streamline its store portfolio, intensify cost efficiency efforts and execute its real estate strategy. These actions bolster the company’s strategy to further invest in omnichannel capabilities, improve customer experience and create shareholder value, according to the release.

The actions include the closure of 68 stores and the reorganization of the field structure that supports the remaining stores, reinforcing the strategy of fewer stores with better customer experience — these store closures are part of the approximately 100 closings announced last August — and the significant restructuring of the Macy’s Inc. operations to focus resources on strategic priorities, improve organizational agility and reduce expense.

Macy’s also intends to sell some underutilized properties.

The actions announced Wednesday are estimated to generate annual expense savings of approximately $550 million, beginning in 2017, enabling the company to invest an additional $250 million in growing the digital business, store-related growth strategies, and other growth areas.

The closure will be a hit for Alton Square Mall, where Macy’s had been one of three major anchor stores. A Sears store that also anchored the mall closed in 2012, and now with the closure of Macy’s, only JCPenny will remain as an anchor.

The mall has had to deal with a score of closures over the last decade, including losing major retailers such as Rex TV in 2009 and Waldenbooks in 2008. The mall’s second level has become increasingly deserted, and owners were planning to cover empty storefronts with drywall to improve aesthetics, the Telegraph reported last March. The food court also has seen an exodus.

The mall building, which opened on Nov. 16, 1978, has been owned by Hull Properties, a Georgia-based firm, since July 2015. A spokesman with the company said in March that the company planned to hold onto the property for the long term, and had plans to revitalize it.